Yesterday I was talking about clarity.Or better said, about simplicity.If you’re not capable of putting it clearly, you don’t have the "pajorera" (faintest damn) idea what you’re talking about. Simplifying is a superpower. How many times have I seen the best technicians we could find for a task make a presentation to a Board of Directors.Charts.Twisted words beyond belief.More jargon… as if it were a competition to see who can pee the furthest.In the end…The sound of crickets. Trying to...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Big table. Bigger egos. Billion-dollar numbers floating around like confetti. We are in the middle of a key meeting of a bid for a PPP project. Slide on the screen. The Bid Director clears his throat. “And now, I’ll pass it to – let’s say - Carlos, who will walk us through the interface risk allocation model.” Silence. People start looking to each other. More looking. Some rumours. Someone nervously laughed… Carlos is not in the room. Not in the building. Not in the country. Where the hell is...
2 days ago • 2 min read
These days I’ve been in an amazing table. Not business guys this time, but that’s not important. The best lawyers. The best technical guys. The best commercial people in the country. Being there simply blows your mind. Their work ethics. Their commitment. Their sharp insights. I should be paying for being there… Being in those tables. With excellent people. In the decision-making tables. It’s a game changer for any professional. If you go with an open mind, What you learn. What you absorb....
3 days ago • 1 min read
Ice cream. Free ice cream. This Friday was a hot, sunny day, and they guys could have not chosen a better moment. Lunch time in the business area of the city. Opening day. New shop. Very well known and delicious ice creams. I could not believe my eyes. The queue went over the corner. Expected waiting time: between 30 and 45 min. The square was full of people. No doubt, brilliant marketing campaign. If you already discover the trick around Santa and the Three Wise Men, you probably know that...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Last year, talking with a big guy in a big company, he showed me their offices. “Look at all the meetings,” he said. “They’re working hard.” As a consultant now, I’m always curious and put into test what I’ve learned the hard way through the years. And let me tell you some data. Studies show that the average employee is only truly productive for about 60% of the workday. In office jobs that translates to roughly 2 hours and 53 minutes of focused work out of 8 hours. Same hours. Much less real...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Too many products. Too many versions. Too much confusion. And the CEO comes back. He walks into a product meeting. Engineers proud. Slides prepared. Roadmaps built. He listens. And listens. And listens. Then he walks to the whiteboard. Draws a simple 2x2 grid. Consumer / Pro. Desktop / Portable. “That’s it,” he says. Everything else? Gone. Not optimized. Not restructured. Killed. In one meeting, he cut roughly 70% of the product line. Imagine the room. Years of work. Teams built around those...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Anything that is alive is in a continual state of change and movement. The moment that you rest, thinking that you have attained the level you desire, a part of your mind enters a phase of decay. You lose your hard-earned creativity and others begin to sense it. This is a power and intelligence that must be continually renewed, or it will die ---- Robert Greene If you ever wonder what I’m doing at 10pm in New Zealand, just when I’m writing this email… You’ve got your answer. I said many times...
7 days ago • 1 min read
According to constraint theory, the greatest human bottleneck is attention. Yes. Our attention is our most finite resource. Even more finite and valuable than our time. Now, think about why Meta is so valuable. And Elon wanted X. And so on… Indeed, the quality and depth of our attention determines the quality of our time. Most people’s attention is scattered, tugged, and seemingly never right here and right now. The rich know this well. In the US, the top 1% don’t allow kids to interact with...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Human emotions spread fast. Very fast. Much faster than any virus. If you go to a stadium and the home team is winning, there’s an explosion of joy. The exact opposite happens if they lose at the last minute. It’s contagious. Inevitable. If your little boy takes her first steps, the huge look of surprise and joy on his face will infect you instantly. That’s who we are. It’s our nature. You don’t need a PPP Certificate from the World Bank to understand this. So… If you spend your life watching...
9 days ago • 1 min read